Wellness Wednesday with Dr. Andrew Eisen From The Valley Health System

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's well this Wednesday right here onSunny One, I was six point five
sponsored by the Valley Health System.This week we're talking to doctor Andrew Eisen
on the topic of the dangers ofvaping. Thank you so much, doctor
Eisen for being on with us today. My pleasure. Please introduce yourself to
everybody out there listening right now.Where you work, How long you've been
in town? Sure? Well,I've been in town a long time.

(00:21):
I was born and raised here.I'm a board certified pediatrician and currently I'm
the chief Academic Officer for the ValleyHealth System, so I oversee all of
our medical education throughout all of ourhospitals. Oh that's great. Now we
are talking today about the dangers ofvaping. You see it everywhere. Unfortunately
it's becoming more and more popular.But we want to discuss today about the

(00:44):
known health risk associated with vaping.I think people probably assume they know all
the risk, but let's dive intothat a little bit more, both in
terms of short term effects and longterm effects. So we have a fairly
good understanding now of short term effectsand intermediate term effects. Long term effects,
we're still trying to figure out okay, and that's because these products really

(01:06):
haven't been widespread on the market longenough for us to see what all those
long term effects are. What wedo know is they're not good. So
these products, many of them,were brought to market essentially as a safe
alternative to cigarettes, and that's justnot true. They carry some of the
same risks that cigarettes do. Theycarry some of their own risks, and

(01:29):
how that compares to cigarettes really dependsmore on the individual, on how much
they use these products, and thosekinds of dose effects can vary dramatically.
But there's no use of vaping orcigarettes for that matter, that is safe.
All of it causes harm. It'sjust how much harm it causes and

(01:51):
how long that lasts, right.I mean, they have done a good
job that industry in terms of marketingand having people assume that it is,
like you said, doctor Eisen,safe alternative to smoking cigarettes, and I'm
glad that you very strongly said thatis just not true. Well, some
folks may remember advertising for cigarettes wayback in the middle of the last century

(02:13):
actually touted health benefits of cigarettes.Those things weren't true, right, but
that's what the advertising said. Andas cigarettes were getting the bad name,
frankly that they deserve because of thehealth effects that they can cause. These
products came out and were touted asa safe option, and they're not safe.
They also contain nicotine, and thatcauses the same kind of damage that

(02:36):
nicotine from cigarettes can cause. Andcausure initial short term injury to lungs,
it can cause long term damage tolungs, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease over
the long haul. In adolescents inparticular and young adults whose brains are still
forming, it can disrupt that braindevelopment. Wow, so you can have
someone who suffers cognitive or mental becauseof using vaping products. No, we're

(03:02):
going to dive into that a littlebit more here, But for me personally,
I can probably say I've never vaped. Now I will say though,
I am around people that do,and I don't know enough about vaping to
know about the effects of me evenbeing in a close proximity or in a
room with somebody who is. Whatare those risks that people who don't vape

(03:23):
take on by being around people whodo. So we don't really know yet.
We don't have a great body ofdata on secondhand vape Okay, we
certainly have a tremendous amount of dataon secondhand smoke. We know that it
causes a tremendous amount of problem.We know, for example, when it
comes to cigarette and cigar smoke,that children who live in homes with smokers,

(03:45):
even if those folks attempt to smokeoutside the house, just living in
the home with a smoker means thatyou don't sleep as well, you have
higher risks of asthma and other lungproblems. Actually, those kids don't do
as well in school. Yeah,we don't know for sure whether or not
secondhand vaping has the same effect.We could be pretty confident that there's no
upside to being around, but wedon't know for sure how bad that is.

(04:11):
You're still too new right now.Yeah, and that's what the problem
is is. I'm seeing it morewith the younger demographics, these teenagers,
these young adults who are just turningto the vape pens or the vape packs
and just assuming maybe it's a betteralternative than cigarettes, which I'm glad we're
really you know, driving home todaythat it is just not Now. I
wanted to dive into a little bitmore about the effects on brain development.

(04:34):
Now, when you mentioned that,are we talking about just like around small
children or just young adults who arenot fully developed yet that are picking up
this habit. Well, brains arecontinuing to develop well into the twenties,
So adolescents and young adults who areusing these products are undermining their own brain
development. Yeah. No, Imean I think everyone just assumes they can,

(04:57):
you know, can get off Scotchfree when they're young, but they
don't realize that, you know,the effects will take place for sure,
no matter what the age is.I'm certainly not recommending that adults or you
know, older folks are using theseproducts. We don't think they're good there
either. But the effects specifically onthe brain we know persists with exposures well
into the twenties. Wow. Now, what is the current scientific understanding of

(05:20):
the relationship between vaping and lung injuriesand how can individuals minimize their risk of
experiencing complications? Well, the secondpart of your question is a lot easier.
If you want to minimize your risk, don't vape. It's that simple.
Then there's no risk involved, andcertainly if you can avoid being around
it. Again, we don't knowfor sure what the risk is yeah,

(05:41):
but there's no upside to being aroundit, that's for sure. In terms
of the relationship with lung disease,there are some initial injuries to the lung
that can occur. Sometimes the vaporthat comes out of these things can be
fairly hot, so you can getactually thermal injury to the lung, okay,
But the chemical injuries are much moresubstantial. And one of the products
that's in a lot of vape products, and one of the chemicals it's in

(06:04):
a lot of vape products is calleddiacetyl, and that's associated with a condition.
It's got a frightening name, bronchiolitisoblitterands wow. But what that means
is that it damages the airways inthe lungs. It makes it harder to
move air in and out of thelungs, and that damage can be permanent.
So someone exposed to this chemical that'sfloating in the vapor can be doing

(06:28):
permanent damage to their lungs. Andthere are dozens and dozens of chemicals in
these products, some of them forflavoring. Diacetyl is used specifically to enhance
the flavors that can do a lotof damage. These are just not things
you're supposed to be putting into yourlungs, right and such a cigarettes,
you know, everyone knows that theycan be very addictive for somebody, you
know. Vaping has the same typeof qualities in terms of the potential for

(06:51):
addiction. That addictive potential is tiedmostly to the nicotine, and there's nicotine
in many of these vape products.Other products include cannabinoids, THC and others,
and those certainly can cause damage atthese high temperatures, But the real
addictive culprit is nicotine, no question. Right now. What are steps individuals

(07:15):
can take to make really smart informedchoices about vaping products and protect their health
moving forward. Yeah, again,the easy answer to that is don't vape.
There's no upside. Just from ahealth standpoint, there is no upside
whatsoever to using any of these products. If you want to learn more,
there are reliable places to go tolearn about that. Don't go to the

(07:36):
website of the company that sells theproduct. They obviously have a motive to
get you to use the product,sure, but go to an entity whose
focus is on health and whether that'sthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the National Institutes of Health. Areliable healthcare education source. JOHNS Hopkins has
some good information. For example,you can go to their website and you

(07:57):
can read about these kinds of thingsthat we're discussing, the kinds of chemicals
that are in these products, thekinds of damage that those things can do.
And I always think it's interesting withthe marketing and that I see out
there. You know, if Isee somebody vaping and they've got like vanilla
ice cream flavor, like, becausethese things have these fancy like flavors attached
to them, I think a lotof these young adults just assume, oh,

(08:18):
it's not that bad. Well,I am old enough to remember the
days of Joe Cammel, who wasa cartoon camel that was used specifically to
market cigarettes to younger folks and toadolescents and even children, and that was
eventually banned by law because it wasclear that it was it was causing harm

(08:39):
to children in adolescents. And theaddition of these flavors. While it's attractive
to adults too, there is nodoubt in my mind that the target audience
for these are children in adolescents.So adding these flavors to attract them to
a drug that is addictive and highlydamaging well. I think the main point
of all of this is that,no matter which way you look at it,

(09:01):
vaping is not the smart choice tomake for your health and for your
future. So thank you doctor AndrewEisen for being on with us today during
Wellness Wednesday. Appreciate your input.Thanks for having me